Research Reports - Reading Comprehension in College Students after Acquired Brain Injury

Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2015 Mar 11

Sohlberg MM, Griffiths GG, Fickas S

Purpose: This exploratory study builds upon the small body of existing research
investigating reading comprehension deficits in college students with acquired
brain injury (ABI).
Method: Twenty-four community college students with ABI completed a battery of
questionnaires and standardized tests to characterize self-perceptions of
academic reading ability, performance on a standardized reading comprehension
measure, and a variety of cognitive functions of this population. Half of the
participants in the sample reported traumatic brain injury (n = 12) and half
reported non-traumatic ABI (n = 12).
Results: College students with both traumatic and non-traumatic ABI cite problems
with reading comprehension and academic performance post injury. Mean performance
on a standardized reading measure, the Nelson Denny Reading Test (NDRT), was low
to below average and was significantly correlated with performance on the Speed
and Capacity of Language Processing test (SCOLP). Injury status of traumatic
versus non-traumatic ABI did not differentiate results. Regression analysis
showed that measures of verbal attention and suppression obtained from the
California Verbal Language Test-II (CVLT-II) predicted total scores on the NDRT.
Conclusions: College students with ABI are vulnerable to reading comprehension
problems. Results align with other research suggesting that verbal attention and
suppression problems may be contributing factors.